Man convicted in Messmer attack arrested again

April 14, 2009

The man convicted 12 years ago of attempted murder and armed robbery in an attack on Cubs public address announcer Wayne Messmer has been arrested again, charged with trying to lure a 15-year-old girl into his car.

James Hampton, 31, was arrested Monday afternoon and charged with a count of attempted kidnapping and a count of child abduction, Chicago police said in a statement.

Hampton was convicted in the April 1994 attack in which a bullet damaged Messmer's esophagus and came within millimeters of shredding his vocal cords, according to court records and news reports. Hampton was sentenced to 21 years in prison for that attack and 12 years, to be served concurrently, for another armed robbery about an hour and a half earlier.

Hampton was paroled in September 2005 and his parole was discharged about three years later, said Januari Smith, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Messmer said that he met both Hampton and his co-defendant when they were imprisoned and found Hampton to have the better character between the two after spending more than two hours speaking with him at Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg.

"I thought, you know what, this guy's made a bad choice in his life," said Messmer, who sang the National Anthem Monday before the Cubs' home opener. "I certainly would've hoped that he would have straightened out."

In the recent allegation, police said a student at Julian High School was walking home from school Monday afternoon when she was approached by a man driving a black Chrysler sedan. The man tried to get her to enter his car, police said.

When she refused, he left the car and approached her on foot. She called her home, alerting her family, police said. The man got close enough to try and force her to come with him, but he failed and fled.

The girl gave police his description and the direction he went, and officers arrested him a short distance away. A judge Tuesday ordered Hampton held in lieu of a $2 million bail.

Hampton, of the 1000 block of West 110th Street, is a part-time worker for state Rep. Constance Howard (34th), doing errands, maintenance and cleaning in the office. He also picked up and delivered computers the office refurbishes for low-income families, Howard said in a phone interview.

He was paid "a token amount of money" for his work and was not driving an official vehicle during the alleged incident. The office does not have any official vehicles, Howard said.

The representative said she was aware of Hampton's prior convictions when he was hired.

"He paid his debt and I gave him a second chance," she said. Asked if Monday's arrest would affect Hampton's job status, she added, "I do not know all the specifics of this situation. I have always believed in innocence until guilt is proven."

Hampton was 16 when he and two other teens robbed a man from the west suburbs near Hawkeye's Bar and Grill, 1458 W. Taylor St., on April 9, 1994. He and Shai Hopkins, then 15, later approached Messmer at about 1:50 a.m. as Messmer was pulling away in his car after leaving the tavern.

Hopkins, the gunman, fired into the car, shattering the driver's side window and hitting Messmer, who drove back to the tavern with the bullet still lodged in his throat, police said at the time.